December 18, 2006

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat
match the beat of the universe, to match your nature
with Nature.”-Joseph CampbellThe Mars Orbiter Camera captured this image of
a
heart-shaped hill some 279 yards wide on the
south
polar region of the planet.

The human race has developed the technology
to peer millions of miles out into space and to
project and reflect sentiments of love and care from
a distant planet. Man is also capable of looking
deep within the human body to witness
beating
heart cells, awed by the persistence of nature.

Curiously, whenever a new year marches in we
become
aware of being a bit off beat and do a little
hop,skip and
jump to
try and catch up. Yes, I'm speaking of resolutions
and goals for the new year. It's a natural urge: to
grow and improve.

Highly evolved as we are, we tend to begin each
year with similar
declarations. Similar to those of others and
similar to our lists of years past.

We all do some amazing things out
there in the world. Most of us create, change, save
and/or better the lives of others. Yet when it comes
to
those things we'd like to do for ourselves, it's
stop procrastinating, drink more water, lose
weight,
etc. Don't we deserve all of that and more?

I like the idea of developing a new habit every
month, as this
blog suggested in 2006. Aside from the author's
mundane
"drink more water" habit, his thesis sounds much
more doable than an entire list of resolutions to be
worked on
from Day One. What do you really want to be, do or
have in the new year? Let's come up with goals that
will
make our old resolutions look timid and meager.

The old year is usually represented by a weary
Father Time, hobbling off into oblivion and the new
year comes eagerly crawling in as a baby.
Let's resolve to put some joy into this next year, let's
make this baby
laugh with glee!

December 04, 2006

"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love
it at the same time; what we really want is for
things to remain the same but get better."-- Sydney J. HarrisIt's that time of the year when we begin to take
stock of the old and look forward to a year of
living 'new and improved'. If you're looking at the
same old issues as last year, in health or career,
an article from Fast
Company magazine entitled Change
or Die, might be of interest.

In November 2004, IBM held a Global
Innovation conference and gathered some of the
most creative thinkers to offer solutions to some
major problems.

The health care crisis was the first one
approached. Dr.
Edward Miller, the dean of the medical school of
Johns Hopkins University, revealed that some 600,000
people a year in the United States undergo bypass
surgery,
and 1.3 million heart patients have
angioplasties. All at a total cost of approximately
$30 billion. About half the time, the bypass grafts
fail in a few years and the angioplasties,
in a few
months.

The causes of reoccurrence are complex, but Dr.
Miller added that studies repeatedly show that two
years after bypass grafting, 90% of the people have
not changed their lifestyle.

The founder of the Global
Medical Forum, Dr.
Raphael Levey, told conference attendees that a
small percentage of the population consumes the
majority of the health-care budget for diseases that
are behavioral issues. The article mentions too much
smoking, drinking, eating and stress and not enough
exercise.

Nothing new there. What continues to puzzle even
the world's greatest thinkers is: how do you
motivate people to change?

Dr.
Dean Ornish is cited as one who may have a
handle on it by offering people the "joy of living"
as opposed to the "fear of dying". He institutes
radical changes so that the effects to the way
people feel are dramatic and quick.

The
Leaning Tower of Pisa,although it
was meant to be a vertical tower, started to
incline during construction. Efforts
to keep the tower from toppling will probably be
constant due to its consistent interaction with the
soil at its foundation. Retaining
the tilt, however, is important to the tower's
identity and to the
town of Pisa. In keeping with the beginning
quote..."what we really want is for things to remain
the same but get better."

That might work for humans, if we had the
lifespan of the Tower of Pisa.